Prime Minister Joseph Muscat did not think twice before attacking Simon Busuttil on a personal level during the Xarabank debate last Friiday. When he was cornered, all he could do was point out at Dr Busuttil’s sweaty hands, a condition that the Opposition Leader suffers from.

But it got worse. When yesterday we asked him whether he felt that, with hindsight, he was wrong to do so, his answer was that he did not know about Dr Busuttil’s condition and that he mentioned the sweaty palms because Busuttil was speaking about his (Muscat’s) body language.

Of course, there is a difference between mentioning one’s body language, which gives people away through their facial expressions, movements and eyes darting, and sweaty hands, a physical condition.

The worst part is that the Prime Minister was lying about not knowing about Dr Busuttil’s circumstances. The person he employed as his personal adviser at OPM and is paid out of public money to attack half the population of Malta, Glenn Bedingfield, had written about Busuttil’s hands a year ago.

Now, do you think that Muscat does not peek at Bedingfield’s website several times a day? Or suggest to him what to write and how to spin situations that are going against the government? Muscat was caught in yet another lie. If he can lie about something like this, one wonders to what extent he will go on other, more important matters.

Surgeon Kevin Cassar wrote an open letter to Tony Blair, the former UK Labour premier who endorsed Joseph Muscat during Sunday’s mass meeting. It was a courageous note, in which Prof Cassar, a Nationalist Party candidate, told Blair that he had supported a prime minister who is facing a magisterial investigation and whose chief of staff is involved in two others.

Speaking of Schembri, it was ironic for The Malta Independent editorial team to receive an email from the chief of staff, which starts off with a “dear friend” introduction and then goes on to attack this newsroom – and that of The Times – just because we have been exposing his wrongdoings for several months, and then telling us to email this attack against us to 10 other “friends”.

He told us that he has offered to resign several occasions to allow Muscat to continue his work, but this resignation was never accepted. This puts more pressure on Muscat, who therefore is more responsible than ever for the crisis which led to an early election. If Muscat had accepted Schembri’s resignation (and that of the relegated minister Konrad Mizzi), matters would be different today.

Schembri then went on to say something which exposes him as arrogant. He says that he does not need to work anymore because he achieved financial security more than a decade ago. While most of us are trying hard to make ends meet, he flaunts his wealth in our face.

Other important things happened yesterday, including the testimony of Busuttil before Magistrate Josette Demicoli, who is holding an inquiry into payments made by Schembri to former Times managing director Adrian Hillman, and that of The Malta Independent Content Director Pierre Portelli before Magistrate Aaron Bugeja, who is investigating the Egrant-Muscat connection, and not only.

Muscat continues to insist there was no cover-up on the FIAU reports where there is every indication that the country's institutions failed to take action, and it had to be the Opposition Leader and the media which exposed them to the public.

The PM slammed the PN's costings of its electoral proposals and, in the evening, we had the first speech of relegated Minister Konrad Mizzi in a Labour Party event. He has been kept hidden all this time, exposing a party that is not too keen to put him on centre stage given his track record.

Busuttil said that no threats will stop him from exposing the government's wrongdoings.